Category Archives: NTO (National Tourist Offices)

VisitBritain has announced the launch of the new VisitBritain trade website. The new website provides essential information about Great Britain for the International travel trade and UK suppliers, offering an easy way to access tools, insights and data to help to grow business, including ways to facilitate new partnerships between suppliers and buyers. The website design offers clear navigation throughout the site and has been developed in a responsive design layout, so that it can be viewed on all devices. The new website offers: new product development initiatives such as Food & Drink and Discover England fund project, themed itineraries, destination information, promotional opportunities, top level research on Great Britain, and VisitBritain’s events calendar for the year. They will also be translating the site for some key regional markets over the coming months.

Germany received 329,860 Indian visitor overnights during January-May, 2017, reflecting a 12.8 per cent growth over the same period in 2016, informed Romit Theophilus, Director, Sales and Marketing, German National Tourist Office (India), at the Discover Germany roadshow held in Delhi recently. “We have had a phenomenal year. We grew by 8.6 per cent year on year and recorded over 413,000 overnights last year. By the end of this year, we hope to close nearly 800,000 overnights from India to Germany. We are on track to achieve our goal of a million Indian visitors to Germany by 2020 and hopefully receive 2 million Indian arrivals by 2030,” said Theophilus. He further informed that until now, Germany had especially been very popular for MICE and business travel from India, but lately, the destination has picked up for leisure travel as well. “It is now a 50-50 split between MICE, business and leisure travellers from India, and we are hopeful that Germany will be seen as a choice destination for all segments,” he adds. The next leg of the roadshow, organised by Destination Germany, will be held in Ahmedabad on September 6 and then in Mumbai on September 8.

Of all the tourists visiting South Africa, Indian women have been found out to be the greatest enthusiasts in signing up for adventure activities, including bungee jumping, shark-cage diving and mountain hiking, according to the data given by South African Tourism. Hanneli Slabber, India Country Manager, South African Tourism, says, “The demand for adventure activities here is largely driven by Indian woman travellers. Indian women are the biggest participants in the adventure tourism sector in South Africa, with majority of them taking part in hardcore adventure, such as bungee jumping, sky diving, shark-cage diving and mountain hiking.” In fact, she said, Indians are only the second from the top nationality to bungee jump off the Bloukrans Bridge and the third from the top nationality to go for shark-cage diving in South Africa. Further, Indian travellers visiting South Africa buy five to six adventure activities per day, which is comparatively much higher than tourists from other nationalities. Revealing the reason for this, she says, “We pride in offering some of the most-value-for-money adventure activities coupled with top safety standards. These are two factors which play a decisive role for Indian tourists.”

Tourism Australia has appointed Bollywood actress Parineeti Chopra as the first Indian woman ambassador for the ‘Friend of Australia’ (FOA) advocacy panel. The FOA recognition was presented to Parineeti by Australian Consul General, HE Tony Huber, for her contribution in promoting Australia. This appointment will help to further cement the close ties between Australia and India. The FOA programme has been devised as a way for Tourism Australia to foster mutually beneficial and long-term ‘friendships’ with those they regard as unique, positive and influential storytellers. Parineeti Chopra joins Chef Sanjeev Kapoor and cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle as fellow Indian Friends of Australia, who have been great advocates for Australia, encouraging Indians to visit the land Down Under. Chopra is all set to visit Queensland and Northern Territory, exploring Australia’s aquatic and coastal experiences, rugged outback, unique wildlife and its incredible variety of world-class food and wine offering. Being a lover of nature and adventure, Parineeti’s trip to Brisbane, Gold Coast and Ayers Rock will see her indulging in adventurous activities such as whale watching cruise, meet the dolphins, surfing, Sky point adventure climb, helicopter flight over the Ayers Rock (Uluru), Harley Davidson ride, aboriginal experiences, and witness the spectacular ‘Field of Light’ installation in the Red Centre of Australia, among many others.

In a bid to promote its products and offerings, NBTC Holland Marketing hosted its sales mission in New Delhi in association with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Jet Airways. Carola Muller, Global Travel Trade Manager, NBTC Holland Marketing, said, “ India is an important and growing market for Holland and we want it to grow further. In fact, India is pour fastest growing market and we foresee a 15 per cent rise in arrival numbers by the end of this year.” The three-city sales-mission will now go to Bengaluru and Mumbai to educate the trade about íts destination and products. Other partners for the mission include Blue Boat Company, Efteling, Henri Willig, ITO Tours and Madurodam.

Tourism Australia, the Australian Government agency responsible for attracting international visitors to Australia for leisure and business events, this year celebrates five decades of promoting Australia in key markets across the globe. On this occasion, Tourism Australia announced the tourism programme for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, in the presence of ace shooter and former Olympic and Commonwealth Gold Medalist, Abhinav Bindra. The Games will be held in Gold Coast. To celebrate Tourism Australia’s 50-year milestone a number of key distribution partners in India have developed special the 50th Anniversary packages, offering significant value-adds to travelers. Tourism Australia Managing Director, John O’Sullivan said, “Our global consumer campaigns such as ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ – most recently brought to life with its ‘Aquatic and Coastal’ and ‘Restaurant Australia’ iterations – continue to evolve to showcase some of the very best attractions, experiences and food and wine options Australia has on offer for travellers. However, Australia’s success would not be possible without the incredible support and passion of our trade partners with whom we work with across the globe. In India, we are amplifying our marketing initiatives to reach and attract our growing target audience of prospective travellers to Australia. India is currently the 8th largest inbound market for Australia, and is expected to be within the top 5 markets by 2025, with around 500,000 Indian visitors annually. The increasing visitor numbers from India confirms that we are well placed to achieve our long-term Tourism 2020 targets for arrivals and out of region market share for India, well ahead of time.” Fanatic Sports was also present at the event which is the authorised ticket reseller for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Raghav Gupta, Founder …

Vienna recorded 64,000 Indian overnights during January-June 2017, registering a 15 per cent growth over the same period in 2016. According to figures released by Vienna Tourist Board, this growth has placed India among the high growth tourist markets for Vienna along with China, Russia and Australia. Vienna continues to attract Indian families, honeymooners and young travellers looking to explore its imperial history, soak in its rich tradition of music, and experience its romantic offerings. “City breaks to Vienna continue to boom: the city established a new record in the first half of 2017, with visitor bed nights increasing 4.2 per cent to around 6,924,000,” said Norbert Kettner, Director, Vienna Tourist Board. The Austrian capital recorded almost 7 million visitor bed nights, the highest till date for Vienna between January-June 2017 registering a 4.2 per cent growth over the same period in 2016. The Board further added that the meetings industry also played an important role, accounting for 11 per cent of the total volume of bed nights in 2016. Nearly 4,000 congresses, corporate events and incentives were held in Vienna last year, another new record for the Austrian capital.

Aiming at a steady increase in tourist arrivals from India, Israel is eyeing one lakh Indian travellers to visit the country by 2018. “We have been very focused in tourism promotions in India and easing the visa process. This year, in the first seven months till July, we have already hosted 34,000 Indian tourists. This is expected to go up to 55,000 by the end of this year,” the Israeli ministry of tourism’s India director Hassan Madah reportedly said. Currently, there are three to four direct flights from Mumbai to Tel Aviv and numerous connecting flights from West Asia. There are talks of introducing direct Air India flights connecting New Delhi with Israel in a few months, he said, adding that if it commences, tourist traffic is likely to surge from India and this year’s number may reach nearly 90,000. There are a few global airlines that are waiting for the Air India flights to be launched, and then introduce their fleets in this direct route. “When this happens, we will see a surge in tourists arrivals from India. We have also been engaging with the tourism industry in India since last few years and are focused in many promotional activities. Due to this, we have set a target of reaching one lakh tourists from India by the end of 2018,” he said. For tourism promotions in India, the Israel ministry of tourism (IMOT) is spending $5-6 million in India this year, he said, adding that going forward, as the tourist traffic grows, the budget is likely to grow. Israel, which has positioned itself as an affordable premium destination, is targeting travellers mainly for pilgrimage, leisure and meetings, incentives, conferences, …

Uzbekistan Airways recently organised an event in Mumbai to promote tourism to Uzbekistan from India. There are currently six flights to Uzbekistan, Tashkent from New Delhi. The event titled ‘Visit Uzbekistan’ was chaired by Atabek Atabaev, Country Manager of Uzbekistan Airways. Also present were Vijay. G. Kalantri, Honorary Consul General of Uzbekistan in Mumbai, Anish Arya, Passenger Sales Agency, Aero World Travels, Tolik Odilov, Managing Director, STG Travels, and Sachin Shinde, Manager-Cargo Sales, Uzbekistan.

The 15th edition of the India Travel Mission (ITM) by Tourism Australia started today in Pune. The four-day event will take place from August 16-19 at JW Marriott Pune. This year’s ITM witnessed 84 sellers including 14 new sellers and 110 buyers. Tourism Australia plans to target three lakh Indian tourist arrivals this year. India currently is at 9th position in terms of passenger arrivals and 8th in terms of market spend.